Mangaka of Gakuen Noise sees many similarities between his work and the anime Kill la Kill.

Studio Trigger's Kill la Kill is one of the more popular anime of the season. With a determined and rough protagonist, clothes-based combat system, and a rigid student council that takes away students' freedoms, Kill la Kill has been accused of plagiarizing an older and somewhat similar work, a manga called Gakuen Noise (otherwise known as Campus Noise).

Hiroyuki Ooshima and Daisuke Ihara created Gakuen Noise over a decade ago. The protagonist seeks to avenge a deceased friend and fights against a scheming student council that wields control over a boarding school so large that it functions as a town. Anyone who has seen Kill la Kill recognizes that the show's premise sounds quite similar to Gakuen Noise. The protagonist of Kill la Kill pursues a school council president whom she suspects killed her father, and she's vowed to get revenge. The school council of Kill la Kill controls a town and decides which students live where - students who contribute to the school and perform well are awarded special uniforms and residence in higher class areas while other students live in a shantytown.

Ooshima, who now lives in France and works in the French comics industry, suggested in a blog post after watching a Kill la Kill trailer that the anime plagiarizes his work Gakuen Noise. Ooshima was upset and said he had symptoms similar to PTSD after watching the trailer. He believes Kill la Kill did not use Gakuen Noise as inspiration but as a work that's unoriginal. He wrote that there have been authors who have borrowed elements from his work, but he adds, "all their works were full of originality and can't be compared to Kill la Kill, and I don't think of complaining about them." Gakuen Noise is an obscure manga - old and unknown, which Ooshima argues makes it easier to plagiarize without consequences.

Ooshima's partner in creating Gakuen Noise does not feel the same. Ihara notes that while there are similarities between Gakuen Noise and Kill la Kill, he argues that the latter's story is different and will head in a different direction. (Kill la Kill is halfway through its run.) Ihara's definition of plagiarism is "tracing the pictures and completely mimicking the story development."

Similar to PTSD?! That's a bit of a stretch, wouldn't you say? I certainly feel for the guy, but his co-creator is correct that the show is taking the plot in a different direction. Anyone who is caught up on the show can attest to that.

Casual Shinji:Well, the premise for Kill la Kill is hardly original though, is it?

It's supposed to be a parody, right? So it's no surprise it's going to seem similar to other works. But then I don't know Gakuen Noise, so maybe he has a point.

Yeah, considering its parody status it should be obvious they are actively trying to make the premise similar to those stories they are poking fun at. Then again, as you say, I suppose I'd have to actually read Gakuen Noise myself to say for sure.

Sooo so so many anime have the same overused similarities,(that idk why people would watch) and to say he felt similar to someone with PTSD is insulting, just makes me not want to hear from this guy anymore due to that alone and no longer care at the least.

The sheer amount of anime's that seem to be based around "Highschool club is going to be closed unless students do X" would suggest that originality isn't exactly it's strong point. Like the Triple A gaming market and Hollywood, if a concept is popular, it will be bled to death.

The fact that one of the other people working on it doesn't see the connection suggests the claims are somewhat tenuous.

Both weak descriptions of the plot match Revolutionary Girl Utena with a "tragic" death in the leads past mixed in rather than the abused romantic interest so unless both of them have talking garments, and have nearly identical designs this is a nonsense claim. The PTSD thing being tossed in makes it sound like he wants to sew for emotional distress. I'm hoping Kill La Kill makes a turn for something outside of the Student Council bit because that's been way overdone, and revenge for the death of ones father was overdone long before even Iniago Montoya, now prepare to die.

So does that mean all the harem style anime with a single, dense beyond reality male character without an ounce of social etiquette or a single clue about the opposite sex getting mindlessly pursued by every female within his school/job/war/battle to avenge grandpa/SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL WITH FRIENDSHIP AND/OR DETERMINAAAAATION!!!!11...

Lost myself for a second. Point is anime isn't really original anyway, they might have taken some ideas from his work or something else similar but it's not flat out plagiarism.

I haven't seen or looked into KlK at all. I'm rolling through my anime backlog and only left it to watch Infinite Stratos 2(AKA International wife wars with terrible soft sci-fi that suffers extremely from the example of regurgitated ideas found in my first paragraph.)However it has best girl in it, so I watch anyway.

medv4380:Both weak descriptions of the plot match Revolutionary Girl Utena with a "tragic" death in the leads past mixed in rather than the abused romantic interest so unless both of them have talking garments, and have nearly identical designs this is a nonsense claim. The PTSD thing being tossed in makes it sound like he wants to sew for emotional distress. I'm hoping Kill La Kill makes a turn for something outside of the Student Council bit because that's been way overdone, and revenge for the death of ones father was overdone long before even Iniago Montoya, now prepare to die.

i think that it will, judging from the story so far, the student council president isn't the real antagonist, and the she is doing everything the way she is, is so that she can usurp her parents company and control over the nations. i think at some point she and the protagonist will join forces and battle it out against her families corporation. this is sorta like with Gurren Lagan in how the antagonist for the first half of the series wasn't actually the antagonist, but another entity was that you don't find out about till about half way into the second act (episode 15-17).

medv4380:Both weak descriptions of the plot match Revolutionary Girl Utena with a "tragic" death in the leads past mixed in rather than the abused romantic interest so unless both of them have talking garments, and have nearly identical designs this is a nonsense claim. The PTSD thing being tossed in makes it sound like he wants to sew for emotional distress. I'm hoping Kill La Kill makes a turn for something outside of the Student Council bit because that's been way overdone, and revenge for the death of ones father was overdone long before even Iniago Montoya, now prepare to die.

I get the feeling its about to start moving past the student council in the next few episodes. In some ways I see it following a similar plot structure to Gurren Lagann. The student council is the obvious first enemy [Lord Genome in Gurren Lagann], who turns out to have been trying to protect everyone, but in a very misguided way, with a much larger threat looming on the horizon [Kiryuin or W/E her name is' mother would be my bet ATM, and Kamui in general, as alluded to in the more recent episodes].

Could be utterly wrong, but all bar one of the student council have been defeated now, and Kiryuin is starting to show a good side beyond being a dictator, with at the very least that chief inquisitor or W/E her actual title is appearing as quite an obvious new threat, so that's how I see it going at this point.

medv4380:Both weak descriptions of the plot match Revolutionary Girl Utena with a "tragic" death in the leads past mixed in rather than the abused romantic interest so unless both of them have talking garments, and have nearly identical designs this is a nonsense claim. The PTSD thing being tossed in makes it sound like he wants to sew for emotional distress. I'm hoping Kill La Kill makes a turn for something outside of the Student Council bit because that's been way overdone, and revenge for the death of ones father was overdone long before even Iniago Montoya, now prepare to die.

I get the feeling its about to start moving past the student council in the next few episodes. In some ways I see it following a similar plot structure to Gurren Lagann. The student council is the obvious first enemy [Lord Genome in Gurren Lagann], who turns out to have been trying to protect everyone, but in a very misguided way, with a much larger threat looming on the horizon [Kiryuin or W/E her name is' mother would be my bet ATM, and Kamui in general, as alluded to in the more recent episodes].

Could be utterly wrong, but all bar one of the student council have been defeated now, and Kiryuin is starting to show a good side beyond being a dictator, with at the very least that chief inquisitor or W/E her actual title is appearing as quite an obvious new threat, so that's how I see it going at this point.

i wouldn't be surprised if the structure of the show follows that of Gurren Lagan, because it has the same people working on the show.

Daystar Clarion:I'm pretty sure KLK plagiarises that about as much as Gurren Lagann plagiarises Evangelion.

Why do I now want to see Gianax suing Gianax for plagiarizing themselves?

OT: Well, now... This seems like a bit of a stretch... I mean, of course there's going to be similarities... But, then again isn't Kill La Kill a parody? To me, that's even worse to accuse them of "plagiarism"... since it's basically meant to show similarities in a more comedic way...

Then again, I'm starting to think the word "plagiarism" isn't what it's suppose to mean in this situation...

crazygameguy4ever:not sure what to say.. but considering how crappy the anime is, i wouldn't be worried about it plagiarizing anything

*Shots fired*

Hoo-boy, this thread just got turned up a level. I like where this is going.*Sits back and watches the fire*

OT: Both pieces are trope-y as fuck, but I think what Kill la Kill does differently is embrace the tropes and go all-out with them. The world design and art direction are nothing to laugh at, either. It's some of the most creative world design I've seen in an anime in a long time. Also, as an artist, the use of color in this show for the characters and the backgrounds is truly marvelous.But this isn't a conversation about the art design and coloring you idiot. There's no way anything that visually unique could be considered copyright infringement. And yes, I know he called "plagiarism" because of the story set-up, but it's still a defining factor.

Whatever it is, I can't really see this as a case of "plagiarism." Seems too silly a claim. Calling "plagiarism" based solely on tropes is definitely un-called for.

Azkar Almsivi:So does that mean all the harem style anime with a single, dense beyond reality male character without an ounce of social etiquette or a single clue about the opposite sex getting mindlessly pursued by every female within his school/job/war/battle to avenge grandpa/SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL WITH FRIENDSHIP AND/OR DETERMINAAAAATION!!!!11...

Lost myself for a second. Point is anime isn't really original anyway, they might have taken some ideas from his work or something else similar but it's not flat out plagiarism.

I haven't seen or looked into KlK at all. I'm rolling through my anime backlog and only left it to watch Infinite Stratos 2(AKA International wife wars with terrible soft sci-fi that suffers extremely from the example of regurgitated ideas found in my first paragraph.)However it has best girl in it, so I watch anyway.

I was just going to mention Infinite Stratos given your avatar but you beat me to it (WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE IT, WHY DID I WATCH IT, it's generic, cliche, and the times I laugh are outweighed by the amount of times I smack my head at how stupid it is or how predictable it gets. the only good thing is that the exosuit designs are pretty good if a bit copied from gundam designs.)

back to the whole plagiarism allegation, given the lack of actual research, overreaction and the fact that his partner is saying otherwise, the mangaka is just trying to hop on and get popularity by being attached to one of the big anime of the year

P.S. WATCH KILL LA KILL, if you love over the top crazy action combined with surprisingly good characters and drama with a bit of a brain behind the imagery and the like, watch it

Edit: i know that if i say this that any credibility as an advocate against cheap generic anime and for anime as an art from will be destroyed but Houki and Char are kind of tied in my mind for "best girl"

medv4380:Both weak descriptions of the plot match Revolutionary Girl Utena with a "tragic" death in the leads past mixed in rather than the abused romantic interest so unless both of them have talking garments, and have nearly identical designs this is a nonsense claim. The PTSD thing being tossed in makes it sound like he wants to sew for emotional distress. I'm hoping Kill La Kill makes a turn for something outside of the Student Council bit because that's been way overdone, and revenge for the death of ones father was overdone long before even Iniago Montoya, now prepare to die.

i think that it will, judging from the story so far, the student council president isn't the real antagonist, and the she is doing everything the way she is, is so that she can usurp her parents company and control over the nations. i think at some point she and the protagonist will join forces and battle it out against her families corporation. this is sorta like with Gurren Lagan in how the antagonist for the first half of the series wasn't actually the antagonist, but another entity was that you don't find out about till about half way into the second act (episode 15-17).

I have a feeling that after Ragyo is done for, Kiryuin and Ryuko will get back to fighting each other because they really have completely different personalities and outlooks on the world. Regardless, this whole plagiarism allegation is completely stupid and just present to get some hype for his own manga

I was just going to mention Infinite Stratos given your avatar but you beat me to it (WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE IT, WHY DID I WATCH IT, it's generic, cliche, and the times I laugh are outweighed by the amount of times I smack my head at how stupid it is or how predictable it gets. the only good thing is that the exosuit designs are pretty good if a bit copied from gundam designs.)

back to the whole plagiarism allegation, given the lack of actual research, overreaction and the fact that his partner is saying otherwise, the mangaka is just trying to hop on and get popularity by being attached to one of the big anime of the year

P.S. WATCH KILL LA KILL, if you love over the top crazy action combined with surprisingly good characters and drama with a bit of a brain behind the imagery and the like, watch it

Edit: i know that if i say this that any credibility as an advocate against cheap generic anime and for anime as an art from will be destroyed but Houki and Char are kind of tied in my mind for "best girl"

IS2 exists for waifu wars. As for KlK I think I'll get around to it, I'm finishing Azumanga Daioh ATM. All aboard the late train.

Legion:The sheer amount of anime's that seem to be based around "Highschool club is going to be closed unless students do X" would suggest that originality isn't exactly it's strong point. Like the Triple A gaming market and Hollywood, if a concept is popular, it will be bled to death.

The fact that one of the other people working on it doesn't see the connection suggests the claims are somewhat tenuous.

I have not seen that anime or even heard of that manga, but assuming his claim is legit, which I doubt, I could understand him being reasonably upset, but PTSD??? Seriously?? Does he even know what PTSD is?